


A Familiar Face

by SoSelfSatisfied



Category: Night at the Museum (Movies)
Genre: Family Bonding, Fluff, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 20:15:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17649161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoSelfSatisfied/pseuds/SoSelfSatisfied
Summary: “It's after hours, buddy. Gonna have to ask you to leave.”The young man lowered his hand in time with Larry's flashlight.Startled recognition dawned on both their faces.The young man glanced at Larry's nametag, while Larry's eyes darted from the man's face, to his notebook, to his sweatshirt that read ‘Cambridge’ in a slightly obnoxious font.It was all just a little too perfect to be true.





	A Familiar Face

Larry Daley whistled a tune to himself as he began his shift. Locking up exhibits, making sure Rexy's faulty rib bone stayed in place, and giving reverent nods to some well-deserving statues.

 “You'd never believe the day I've had,” he said to some of them, going on to describe the traffic in New York and a spilled coffee and picturing the various reactions he would have received.

 A hearty gentleman's laugh from horseback.

 A cowboy's whistle from the pocket on his chest.

 Maybe a slap from a monkey.

 As he rounded a corner, his last stop of the night, twirling his keys around one finger, he gazed up at the two massive anubis guarding the final exhibit.

 Years ago he had been given a warning not to make eye contact, but now they sat in a stony vigil, their eyes fixed on the middle distance.

 “Anything exciting happen today, guys?” he asked as he walked forward. He sighed.

 Then he stopped.

 What was…

 Who…

 “Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave,” Larry said, using his flashlight to illuminate the figure in the dim walkway.

 A man, probably no older than twenty, leaned against the entryway to the sarcophagus’ chamber. He scribbled in a notebook with pyramids on the cover, apparently too involved in his work to hear the guardsman's order.

 “Sir?” Larry repeated, stepping closer. It wasn't a terrible offense, people accidentally stayed after hours all the time, but it was his job to escort them off the premises. He shone his flashlight upwards, onto the young man's face.

 He looked up, wincing and holding a hand to shield himself from the light. “Excuse me?” he said. His accent sounded English.

 “It's after hours, buddy. Gonna have to ask you to leave.”

 The young man lowered his hand in time with Larry's flashlight.

 Startled recognition dawned on both their faces.

 The young man glanced at Larry's nametag, while Larry's eyes darted from the man's face, to his notebook, to his sweatshirt that read ‘Cambridge’ in a slightly obnoxious font.

 It was all just a little too perfect to be true.

 “Larry Daley,” Larry introduced himself, his fingers fumbling for the switch on his flashlight. Why was he introducing himself? This kid was just a really strange coincidental tourist that had happened to stay after hours in the tomb of the very person he reminded Larry so much of. No reason to make conversation.

 “Rami Malek,” the young man said, clutching his notebook to his chest. It glittered gold in the ambient lighting. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stay so long.”

 Larry shook his head. “No, you're fine. You're fine, it's just…” He gestured to his outfit. “Security.”

 Rami laughed, nodding. He glanced this time toward Larry's flashlight. “I’ve… seen you around before, I think.”

 Larry knew that was improbable. He rarely came to the museum early enough to see touring guests anymore, and, even when he did, he stayed away from most of the crowds. An even stranger coincidence, perhaps?

 So he just shrugged and threw up his hands. “Yeah, it's possible, I guess. Definitely possible.”

 A long stretch of silence ensued.

 Hm.

 “So,” Larry said, drawing Rami's attention to the tomb around them. “Any reason you're here specifically?” He cleared his throat. Was that too weird of a question to ask?

 Rami's face lit up. “Oh, yes and no, yes and no. Um-” His gaze darted towards the sarcophagus. “I've always been interested in Ancient Egypt, as you can see,” he said, holding up his notebook. “And my parents are both Egyptian, and I've always felt…” He stopped press his lips together, thinking. “Oh I don't know, connected somehow? I mean I know it's my heritage and all, but there's something… more.”

 Oh no.

 Rami shrugged. “I don't know if that makes sense or if I'm explaining properly or-”

 It made an odd amount of sense to Larry.

 “-if I'm being confusing, or-”

 Maybe a little bit.

 “-maybe I'm just rambling now, and-”

 “Do you know if you're related to him?” Larry pointed to Ahkmenrah's final resting place.

 Rami looked toward it with sovereignty, and a dignity beyond his years. He smiled. “I don't know,” he said, a wistful tone in his voice. “Maybe. I hope so. He was a great Pharaoh, you know. One of the youngest, too. My age.”

 Larry raised his eyebrows. “Oh? And how old are you?”

 “I just turned eighteen. Just started university, too.” Rami proudly presented the front of his sweatshirt. “I came over here for research. Did you know Ahkmenrah used to be on display in Cambridge?”

 Larry nodded, choking up just slightly. “Yes, I did. I know a lot about Ahkmenrah, actually.”

 Rami's eyes widened. “You do?” He pulled out his pen. “Can you tell me?”

 Larry waved him over. “How about we talk closer to the door? That way you won't get me in trouble.”

 “Sure, sure,” Rami said, walking over to Larry's side. He sniffed and opened his notebook, flipping through a few detailed sketches.

 “What are those?” Larry asked.

 Rami lingered on one that was half-drawn. “Oh, um…” He drew a finger hesitantly over the pen marks. “I just like drawing, I guess.”

 As he flipped to blank page, Larry thought over the image. It looked remarkably like himself.

 “So,” Rami said. “Ahkmenrah. Tell me everything.”

 And he did.

 Every little thing that he'd been told so long ago, haphazardly, maybe even a little jokingly.

 Things a scholar would never be able to tell you, like the time Ahkmenrah tripped on a step when he was seven and got his first bloody nose.

 Things like how he was bedridden with malaria twice in one year when he was twelve, and a third time when he seventeen, the poor thing.

 Or the time be broke his pinky toe.

 Really any weird injury, come to think of it.

 With every new piece of information, Rami nodded and jotted it down, sometimes with a strange expression on his face as he absently touched his nose, then his forehead, then his foot in turn.

 “He got hurt a lot,” Rami commented, lounging halfway in and out of the main door.

 “Yeah,” Larry said. “Egypt wasn't exactly the safest place in the world.”

 “Did you know the life expectancy was only thirty to forty?”

 Larry furrowed his brow. “No, no I didn't.”

 Rami nodded, swirling his pen over top of the scrawled image of a bird. “It was dangerous back then. Medicine was minimal, deadly mosquitos everywhere, no sunscreen. Really scary.” Rami's voice had lowered to a hoarse whisper that Larry had to lean closer to hear. He dug his pen harder into the paper. “Sometimes, I…” He glanced upward, straight into Larry's eyes. “You don't need to hear me ramble,” he said, starting to stand up. He seemed panicky.

 “Wait,” Larry said, catching him by the arm. “Are you okay?”

 Rami's eyes flashed wider in the moonlight. “I just… I just feel, I-” He reached for his head.

 Larry waited while the young man caught his breath, clutching his notebook halfway open. The bird he had drawn before had been joined by several other little symbols. Very familiar symbols. Hieroglyphs, Larry realized. They were hieroglyphs. Not only that, but they spelled out a name.

 “Deja vu,” Rami interrupted his musing. “Real bad deja vu. I'm sorry, I freaked out a little.”

 “No, no. It's fine,” Larry said, taking his hands from Rami's shoulders. He pointed to the hieroglyphs. “You know that's-”

 “His name? Yeah.” Rami pulled the notebook to his chest. “First thing I learned how to write. In hieroglyphs. Only thing, really.”

 Larry nodded, lost for words, as he stared into the way-too-familiar eyes in front of him. “This is going to sound really crazy,” he began.

 Rami blinked.

 “But, just hear me out, is it in any way possible, at all, in any capacity, that you're…” He pulled the notebook down and rested a finger on the hieroglyphs. “Him?”

 Rami stared down at the paper for a long time. He swallowed. “I didn't want to say it.”

 Larry’s hand fell from the notebook.

 Rami's mouth twitched. “I thought no one would ever believe me.” He blinked as his eyes turned misty. “I, I think… I think, um…”

 Larry pressed his hand to his mouth, tears biting at the corners of his eyes.

 Rami's smile lit up the room. “Hello, Guardian of Brooklyn.”

 The notebook was squashed between them as Larry embraced his dear old friend.

 Rami freed his arms to wrap them around the nightguard's neck.

 “It's strange, without everyone else,” Rami said, chin resting on Larry's shoulder. “But, hey…” He pulled back, and smiled. “I can go out in the sun  with you now.”

 Larry laughed, drawing his hand over his eyes. “You can, can't you?”

 What a night.

 What a reunion.

 What a dawn, as the sun glittered off the golden cover of Rami's notebook.

 “I'm off school for a couple weeks, you know,” he mentioned, swinging his legs as he strolled the sidewalks by Larry's side.

 Larry glanced over at him.

 “And since I don't actually, you know, live here, I'm staying in a hotel, so…”

 Larry stopped him. “What are you getting at?”

 Rami shrugged, looked down at his hands, wrung his fingers over the edge of his notebook, and looked back up again. “Can I stay with you and Nick? Does Nick still live with you? It is okay for me to ask? Is-”

 “Calm down,” Larry said, touching his hand to Rami's chest. “Yes, yes, and yes. It's fine.”

 Rami beamed. “Wonderful.”

 Larry put an arm around his shoulder as they continued walking.

 “Oh, and Larry?”

 “Yes?”

 “Can you say my full name one more time?”

 “What, Ahkmenrah?”

 “Yeah-”

 “Fourth king of the fourth king?”

 “I didn't mean the whole-”

 “Ruler of Egypt and the famed Boy Pharaoh?”

 Rami shoved Larry in the shoulder. “You know what I meant,” he said, turning to hide his smile. “And I was never actually called the Boy Pharaoh.”

 “But you told me-”

 “I was joking, then! I think.” Rami shrugged. “Some things are kind of fuzzy.”

 Larry pulled him closer. “We have plenty of time to catch up now, don't we?”

 Rami grinned and briefly rested his head on Larry's shoulder. “Yeah, we do. Lots of time.” He stepped away from Larry, craning his head back to stare up at a tree. “All day, really.” He laughed and jogged a small ways ahead, spinning on his heels, breathing in the morning air.

 Larry shook his head.

 What an adventure this would be.

**Author's Note:**

> Written by my brilliant little sister <3 (with a potential second chapter on the way and her permission to post)


End file.
